Certain types of articles, such as food or beverage containers, are commonly sold either as individual units or in a multi-container carton. Each article is normally marked with a bar pricing code to enable it to be scanned and automatically totaled at a retail outlet when sold as an individual item. When packaged in conventional open-ended wrap-around carriers, pricing errors can occur if the scanner sees the pricing code on one of the articles instead of the code on the package itself. One way to prevent this from happening is to package the articles in a completely enclosed carton or carrier. An enclosed carrier is quite expensive, however, compared to a wrap-around carrier due to the greater amount of stock required.
It is preferred to provide wrap-around carriers with partial end panels of a size sufficient to cover the pricing code on the end articles in the package. Such a design requires less stock than a fully enclosed carrier and is correspondingly more economical to produce. Partial end panels designed to cover pricing codes located near the bottom of the article require only a short panel extending up from the bottom panel. Ideally, the short end panels should be large enough to cover the pricing code of the end articles, should not interfere with the normal fabrication and packaging methods of wrap-around carriers and should be locked in place after being formed.
A carrier design which provides all these desirable features is described in the above-mentioned application Ser. No. 08/335,930. In that design short end panels are connected to the bottom panel and to angle panels, the latter being connected to side panel locking panels. Upon folding the carrier into place the end panels are automatically folded up and locked into place as a result of the folded locking panels being tightly held between the side panels and adjacent packaged articles. Even though the end panels normally protect against the pricing code on individual articles in the carrier being mistakenly scanned, it would be advantageous to provide still more protection to ensure that this does not occur in packages where portions of the end articles are spaced from the end panels, as when the articles are curved.
The main object of the invention, therefore, is to provide a wrap-around carrier with an improved partial end panel design which includes the benefits of the previous design and in addition has features which provide even greater protection against unwanted price scanning of individual articles.